Shows
Humans of StaffingTerraFirma Marketing’s Jay Mattern on Why Private Equity Can't Run Your Staffing FirmIn this episode of Humans of Staffing, Jay Mattern, CEO of TerraFirma Marketing, dissects his cautionary tale of selling to William E. Simon's private equity fund in 1999, watching outside investors destroy operational excellence, and executing a strategic buyback through bankruptcy court. After building a staffing empire from a house-based startup to $250+ million over 32 years, Mattern reveals why investor-led management fails in staffing and the specific frameworks founder-operators use to scale successfully.
Topics Discussed:
The Six-Point Scaling Framework for Breaking Revenue Ceilings: Mattern's systematic approach to identifying structural breakdowns at major growth markers (25M, 50M, 100M+...2025-07-241h 03
Humans of StaffingPeoplease's Stu Churchill on PEO Partnership Red FlagsMost staffing agencies hit an invisible wall when trying to expand geographically because the compliance complexity of managing workers compensation, payroll regulations, and state-specific requirements across multiple jurisdictions becomes overwhelming. Stu Churchill, General Manager at Peoplease, however, has spent nearly two decades perfecting a co-employment model that eliminates these barriers while maintaining agency control over core business decisions. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Stu tells Sammy and TJ how Peoplease's pay-as-you-go workers compensation model eliminates the traditional barriers to multi-state expansion. He explains the strategic liability split in co-employment relationships, where agencies maintain full direction and control...2025-06-1850 min
Humans of StaffingTeem’s Cory Pinegar on How the Dental Industry Is 20 Years Behind in Business TechnologyThe staffing industry has undergone significant transformation, but few have approached it with the unique perspective of Cory Pinegar, Founder of Teem. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Cory shares how a chance opportunity to clean out a closet for $500 led to acquiring a struggling dental service division for just $1. From those humble beginnings — where making payroll sometimes depended on collecting from a single difficult client — he's built a global staffing operation that now maintains a stringent 0.4% acceptance rate to ensure quality.
What makes Cory's approach revolutionary is his insight into healthcare staffing challenges: denti...2025-05-2254 min
Humans of StaffingJobvious’ Brad Beach on Monetizing Your Professional Network With Staffing ReferralsStaffing industry margins are under unprecedented pressure, and Brad Beach, Founder & CEO of Jobvious & Tailored Management, has responded by creating a platform that fundamentally reimagines the economics of talent acquisition. After 30 years witnessing staffing agencies squeezed between MSP fees, shrinking markups, and intensifying competition, Brad launched a referral-based platform that compensates "network champions" with 10% of a placed candidate's hourly wage for the entire duration of their assignment. This approach doesn't just create significant passive income opportunities; it taps into the 85% of qualified talent not actively searching job boards while simultaneously reducing recruiting costs.
In this episode of...2025-05-0851 min
Humans of StaffingMeritus Capital’s Adam Forbes on Funding Your Staffing Agency Without Personal GuaranteesThe precarious balance in staffing can shift in an instant — a single unexpected order for 100 workers by tomorrow morning could spell either tremendous opportunity or financial disaster. In this eye-opening episode of Humans of Staffing, Sammy and TJ dive deep with Adam Forbes, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Meritus Capital, who reveals the financial machinery that powers successful staffing agencies.
From his dramatic origin story of walking into a dark office to find his employer shutting down with 400 workers in the field, to building his own agency from those ashes, Adam shares how accounts receivable factoring transformed his...2025-04-241h 13
Humans of StaffingFirst Staffing Group’s Juliana Bojorquez on How Preparation Powers ExpansionJuliana Bojorquez, CEO, transformed from a receptionist in a staffing agency to building First Staffing Group into a thriving enterprise, with five locations serving Southern California and Texas in just five years. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, she reveals how reaching a career ceiling at previous employers sparked her entrepreneurial journey, the specific methodologies behind her rigorous client qualification process, and how maintaining financial reserves helped her company navigate the volatile 2020-2024 business climate when many competitors struggled with cash flow.
With 15 years of industry experience before launching her own agency during the pandemic, Juliana w...2025-04-0349 min
Humans of StaffingMDRN Staffing's Edgar Mota on How Military Discipline Built a Blueprint for SuccessEdgar Mota, Owner of MDRN Staffing immediately fell in love with staffing because he was helping people. A sense of being in service to others was something he yearned for from his time in the US Army.
In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Edgar takes Sammy and TJ through his full journey, from hitting rock bottom after his deployment to discovering his passion for staffing, and an angel investor's unexpected offer to launch a staffing firm just before COVID.
Military discipline became Edgar’s business superpower, including through the sobering reality of client bankruptcies and...2025-03-2041 min
Humans of StaffingVoyage Employer Services’ Daniel Beltran on Compliance as Competitive EdgeHow can a staffing agency steady itself in a Wild-West-type situation? In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Sammy and TJ dive deep with a rapidly growing staffing firm specializing in light industrial workforce management in California's challenging regulatory environment. Daniel reveals how Voyage differentiates itself in the Wild West of staffing through superior compliance protocols and workforce management technology while competitors race to the bottom on margins.
Facing California's notoriously low markup rates, Voyage carved out a competitive advantage by helping clients navigate complex regulations while building sophisticated timekeeping and workforce technology integrations. Daniel shares candid i...2025-03-0644 min
Humans of StaffingDynasty Employment Solutions’ Miguel Angel Estrada Valencia on How Client Portal Analytics Cut Time-to-Fill by 40%In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Miguel Angel Estrada Valencia, President of Dynasty Employment Solutions, provides a fresh Gen-Z perspective on modernizing the staffing industry through technology and transparency. As a tech-native leader who built his career through innovative approaches to sales and operations, Angel shares how he's leveraging social media, AI, and digital transformation to reshape traditional staffing models while maintaining the crucial human element that drives success in the industry.
The episode provides senior staffing leaders with actionable frameworks for modernizing their operations while navigating complex regulatory environments and maintaining competitive advantages through technology...2025-02-1846 min
The Growth GameAI-Powered Staffing: The Future of Workforce Management w Sammy SinghIn this episode of The Growth Game Podcast, Paul sits down with Sammy Singh, CEO and co-founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform that’s changing the game for hourly workers. With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Sammy is leveraging AI solutions to make staffing simpler, faster, and more efficient. Key topics include: AI for pre-screening candidates, time tracking, and schedulingAI as a recruitment companion rather than a replacementData-driven matching for improved placement quality Tune in to hear how AI is helping staffing agencies save time and focus on driving growth, and why Sammy...2024-11-2522 min
Category VisionariesSammy Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of WurkNow: $15 Million Raised to Power the Future of StaffingIn today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Sammy Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform that's raised $15 Million in funding.
Topics Discussed:
Sammy’s ethnic, geographical and educational background
How WurkNow gives power to hourly workers, helps staffing agencies recruit, match and place individuals, and makes it easier for those agencies to follow compliance
Sammy’s experiences being an angel investor
What Blockchain has to do with Sammy’s work
Why Sammy prefers to learn from everyone rather than have one major inspirational figure
Favorite book:
The Millionaire Fastlan...2023-08-1727 minCategory VisionariesSammy Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of WurkNow: $15 Million Raised to Power the Future of StaffingIn today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Sammy Singh, CEO and Co-Founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform that's raised $15 Million in funding.
Topics Discussed:
Sammy’s ethnic, geographical and educational background
How WurkNow gives power to hourly workers, helps staffing agencies recruit, match and place individuals, and makes it easier for those agencies to follow compliance
Sammy’s experiences being an angel investor
What Blockchain has to do with Sammy’s work
Why Sammy prefers to learn from everyone rather than have one major inspirational figure
Favorite book:
The Millionaire Fastlan...2023-08-1727 min
Staffing StoriesSammy Singh - CEO/Co-founder, WurkNow
Please help us welcome our special guest, Sammy Singh, to this Staffing Stories episode. Sammy has spent over 25 years in the Staffing Industry as an operator, software provider and innovator. He is currently serving as CEO/Co-founder of WurkNow, a digital staffing platform for hourly workers. WurkNow is a leading staffing VMS provider for agencies and employers. Their innovative ATS, Unified Timekeeping, and Agency Management solutions help businesses find workers, reduce time-to-fill rates, and scale faster.Join Sammy and our host, Andy, for this down-to-earth conversation as they dive into what it looks like and feels like to treat c...2023-07-0326 min
Rec Tech: the Recruiting Technology PodcastCode Smoke Signals and Nomad Health FundingCodeSignal, a technical assessment platform dedicated to helping companies, including Facebook, Roblox, Zoom, Robinhood, and others, make data-driven hiring decisions in tech recruiting, announced $50M in Series C funding and the launch of CodeSignal’s new advanced Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that unlocks highly relevant assessment experiences. This round, which brings CodeSignal’s total funding to $87.5M, With Codesignal’s newly launched advanced IDE, candidates will now be able to interact with code, files, a terminal, and a preview of their application in a persistent, fully configurable environment. This means candidates will have a similar experien...2021-09-2407 min